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Brain Stories is the brand new podcast from the UCL Neuroscience Domain.
Welcome to UCL Brain Stories, the monthly podcast series from the UCL Neuroscience Domain presented by Caswell Barry (UCL Division of Biosciences), Steve Fleming (UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences) and Selina Wray (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology).
UCL Brain Stories aims to showcase the best of UCL Neuroscience, highlighting the wide range of cutting-edge research going on within the Neuroscience Domain as well as bringing you the people behind the research to share their journey of how they ended up here.
Each month we’ll be joined by a leading neuroscientist to offer their perspective on the big questions and challenges in Neuroscience research, to find out what stimulated their fascination with the brain and hear how they ended up becoming part of the UCL Neuroscience community.
New! Episode 18 - Brain Stories Live
The first ever live recording of the UCL Brain Stories podcast live from the Bloomsbury Studio at the Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio on 18th October 2023. Caswell and Selina spoke to Diksha Gupta, Rick Adams, and Benedetto De Martino on all things Neuro AI.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
Previous episodes
- Episode 1: Sophie Scott and the science of laughter
In our first episode we are joined by Professor Sophie Scott, who chats to Selina and Steve about her journey from "polytechnic to PhD" and why understanding the science of laughter is so important.
- Epsiode 2: Nichola Raihani and social cooperation
In our second episode Caswell and Steven are joined by Professor Nichola Raihani who talks about her new book, Kalahari Babblers, Lizard Island and why we're better off together.
- Episode 3: Andrew Macaskill and making decisions
In our third episode Andrew Macaskill joins Selina and Caswell to talk about how the brain weighs evidence and makes decisions - also why it's important for neuroscientists to get out of their comfort zone once in a while.
- Episode 4: Nick Fox on the importance of understanding Alzheimer’s disease
In our fourth episode Selina & Caswell talk to Professor Nick Fox about the importance of research into Alzheimer’s disease and the progress being made towards better diagnosis and treatment.
- Episode 5: Tamar Makin on brain plasticity
In our fifth episode Selina and Steve chat to Professor Tamar Makin about her fascinating research on brain plasticity, artificial limbs and the potential for human augmentation.
- Episode 6: Sanjay Sisodiya on Epilepsy
In our first episode in 2022, Caswell & Selina talk to Professor Sanjay Sisodiya (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) about his research into epilepsy and the intersection between climate change and neurological disease.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Other
- Episode 7: Benedetto De Martino on decision making
Benedetto De Martino talks to Selina and Caswell about decision making, why we make choices that are bad for us, and the importance of having a hobby - plus a banjo makes an appearance.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 8: Aman Saleem on visual input to spatial memories
Aman talks about his journey from metallurgical engineering to multi-brain region neuroscience, how this has informed his rodent VR based studies of visual navigation, and what brains taste like.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 9: UCL Neuroscience Symposium
Conversations with the speakers from the 2022 UCL Neuroscience Symposium.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
Access the transcript soon- Episode 10: Hugo Spiers on the brains of taxi drivers
Hugo Spiers talks about taxis, how where you grew up affects your navigation skills, and the time that Benedict Cumberbatch ruined one of his experiments.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 11: Katharina Schmack on schizophrenia and why we all hallucinate
Katharina Schmack talks to Caswell and Steve about dopamine, hallucinations, how to juggle careers in science and medicine, and why sleep-deprived parents might hear things that are not really there.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 12: Tobias Hauser on computational psychiatry and the origins of obsessive-compulsive disorder
Tobias Hauser talks to Steve and Caswell about common misconceptions around OCD, what the "computational" means in computational psychiatry, and the reasons why teenagers might hold the key to understanding the origins of mental health problems.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 13: Ed Wild On Huntington’s Disease – From Genetics To Clinical Trials
Ed Wild talks to Steve and Selina in a wide-ranging discussion about Huntington’s disease – encompassing genetics, disease mechanisms, therapeutic development and clinical trials – with some interesting stories about Sea Urchins and CAG repeats, and the Pope!
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 14: Kate Jeffery On The Cognitive Map And Memory
Kate Jeffery talks to Steve and Caswell about memory, how place cells might be the neural basis of our sense of space, the joys of training rats to climb around in three dimensions, and what all this has got to do with architecture.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 15 - Sarah Garfinkel on how clinical conditions impact emotion processing
Sarah talks to Caswell and Steve about her research exploring emotion and how brain body interactions may go awry in clinical conditions.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 16 - Peter Kok on how the brain determines what we see
Peter Kok talks to Selina and Steve about how the brain determines our visual experience of the world and how his research aims to understand the neural circuit underlying this.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 17 - Jenny Bizley on how the brain perceives sounds
Professor Jenny Bizley talks to Caswell and Steve about how different sounds are perceived by the brain.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
- Episode 18 - Brain Stories Live
The first ever live recording of the UCL Brain Stories podcast live from the Bloomsbury Studio at the Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio on 18th October 2023. Caswell and Selina spoke to Diksha Gupta, Rick Adams, and Benedetto De Martino on all things Neuro AI.
Listen here: SoundCloud | Transistor (Apple, Spotify, Google etc.)
If you have a question you’d like our hosts or guests to answer, tweet us at @UCLBrainstories.